This is Not the Answer

People are looking for answers. We all have a usual way of finding them—the Internet. We use it to find everything from shoes to car parts. When we have a question, we just do a Google search to find the answer.

Can you guess what is the most common question about God and religion in Google searches? Surveys vary, but recent studies claim that the number one question about God is: Why Does God Allow Sin and Suffering?

This question has tormented godly men for thousands of years. Job pleaded with God to give him an answer for all his pain and loss. Jeremiah the prophet was upset because bad people in his day had it good and good people suffered. So it is no surprise that it still perplexes mankind today. If prophets of God had a hard time with this question, we will not find the magic answer on the internet.

A person can struggle with this issue so much that he turns against God. That almost happened to a man named Asaph in Psalm 73. He was a man of faith, but he almost lost his faith because he saw wicked people seemingly getting away with sin. But he came to his senses when he remembered the final end of these people. Life is not always fair, but justice will be done in the end.

Others are not as thoughtful. They become more and more angry until they turn to bitterness and hatred—even hatred of God. They turn to atheism and skepticism. “Don’t talk to me about God’s love,” they complain. “Where was God when my child died with cancer? Where was God when I was abused as a child?”

But think about this. If there is no God, then there is no real right and wrong. There is no “evil” to protest about. Morality is only what every person says it is

Atheism is not the answer. It only makes the problem worse. Atheism says God doesn’t exist because there is evil in the world, and yet atheism teaches that there is no such thing as real evil. Atheism says there is no God, no soul, no judgment, and no heaven and hell. It tells us that there is no reason for our being here and no hope beyond death. Some “answer” to the problem of evil.

When Job challenged God to a debate on this, the Lord obliged him. He pointed Job to His creation and asked him rapid-fire questions that were beyond Job’s feeble understanding. The creation is the immovable object in this discussion. Whatever we know or don’t know about the problem of evil, the one thing we must not and cannot do is deny its Creator. That is what we know. That is our anchor. The “Why?” part is a matter of trusting God until that day when we may understand it better.

Kerry

West End church of Christ • May 4, 2025